I Want To Hold Your Hand
by FireSyNNs
Summary: SwanQueenWeek Jan 2015 Soul Mate AU. One-Shot. A series of unintentional handholding incidents lead Emma and Regina to believe there is something sinister at play. To Regina's great displeasure, Rumplestiltskin explains it's not so sinister at all.


**Note: This takes place in an obscure time after the first curse was broken and Henry was still tiny**

**Other Note: Any and all mistakes were made with love**

* * *

Henry got up from the floor to hurry to the television. He pressed the power button and excitingly turned around to face his mothers sitting on the couch. "So what did you guys think? Avengers or" He stopped mid-sentence and furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why are you holding hands?"

"What?" Emma looked down to the mid cushion between them. She found her hand entangled with Regina's. They both pulled away as if they their hands had suddenly caught fire. Emma didn't know how long she had been holding Regina's hand or how it even happened, but she was almost relieved by the confusion Regina was trying to hide. It seemed neither woman had a clue. "Uh, we weren't."

Henry didn't bother to call out her out on her poor excuse of a lie.

Days passed and for the most part the incident was forgotten, or at least no one brought it up again.

…

Regina's fingers tapped against the table. She and Henry had already put their orders in, but the blonde seated across from her was still flipping through the menu, trying to making a decision, while Ruby waited patiently at the head of the table, chatting with Henry about the latest developments in his comic books.

Granny's grumbling from behind the counter reminded Ruby of her duties to the other customers. "Why don't I give you a minute and come back later?"

"No, no." Emma didn't bother to look up. "I'll have, uhh." She flipped the menu back to the first page and Regina couldn't take it anymore.

"Really, Miss Swan? We all know you are going to order a burger, so just order a burger already."

She took her eyes off the menu to narrow them at Regina. "What are you, some kind of clairvoyant now?"

"Of course not, you're just predicable."

"No I'm not." The menu fell from her hands as she focused on defending her honor.

"You order the same thing almost every time."

"So do you."

"Perhaps, but it doesn't take me 28 years and the breaking of a curse to do so."

"There are a lot of different kinds of burgers, okay? It's hard."

Regina rolled her eyes and decided to prove her wrong by example. "She'll have a double bacon cheese burger with avocado, onions, tomato, spinach instead of lettuce, no pickles or mustard, extra mayor, and Monterey Jack instead of American cheese."

Ruby scribbled away in her notepad, Emma's cheeks turned red.

"I can order my own burger!" She burst out.

"Then do it." Regina leaned into the table with a challenge in her eyes.

"Um...Moms?" Henry interrupted.

"Yes, Henry?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"You guys are holding hands again."

Their hands were equally intertwined in the middle of the table with no way to tell whose fault it was. Their drinks nearly toppled over with the velocity of their hands yanking away to their respective sides. The women were a mirror of each other, hiding their hands in their laps and avoiding eye contact with anyone, willing away any evidence of their incident.

The red in Emma's face burned her ears and traveled to her chest. "That burger sounds good now." Her voice was tight and sounded almost as embarrassed as Regina felt.

…

Regina was going to kill her. Emma was late, so, incredibly late. Emma took the toothbrush from her mouth and spit out the window of her bug. Or it would have been out the window if she had remembered to roll it down. Emma could only groan as the toothpaste and saliva ran down the glass. She had to focus on speeding through the streets of Storybrooke to get to the meeting that started 45 minutes ago.

When she burst through the door of Regina's office the speaking councilman paused mid-word and tracked her movements as she took a seat next to Regina.

"As I was saying." He gave Emma a small glare and went back to his tangent on zoning laws.

"You're late." Regina whispered harshly.

"Well somebody, and I'm not pointing any fingers," She pointed to Regina under the table where only they could see. "had me up half the night chasing down Pongo. I don't see why dog catching is the Sheriff's responsibility."

"Ahem." Another councilman cut in before Regina could reply. "If we could all turn to page 129." The men and women flipped through their binders to get to the requested page.

"Crap." Emma muttered. She knew she had forgotten something, but in her rush to get out of the apartment she felt like she had forgotten everything so had ignored it.

Regina sighed dramatically and slid over her binder so they could share.

Emma scooted in closer to get a better look at numbers and figures she didn't really care about.

"And he's not just any dog. He's Pongo." Regina's whispered as they both pretended to follow along with the council.

A sly grin played on Emma's face as she came to a realization. "You have a soft spot for Pongo."

"Don't be ridiculous." Regina snapped louder than she had intended. She cleared her throat and hoped it would be a good enough cover. The council continued with lecturing each other and Regina leaned down closer to Emma's slouched form to whisper again. "He's important to the community."

"He's important to _you_."

Regina huffed at Emma's teasing.

"It's okay to admit it." Emma chuckled lightly. "I never really saw you as a dog person."

Regina made a show of focusing more carefully on the graphs in the binder.

"We should let Henry keep one of those stray dogs he's always finding."

"I already let him keep you." Regina murmured.

"Hey!" The council continued their debate but glared at Emma collectively. She lifted the binder to stand it on the table and forced Regina down to continue their whispering behind it. "What is that supposed to mean!?"

"It means he doesn't have time to babysit a dog and a puppy."

"Okay ouch," She didn't know what she had done to be called a dog. "I guess puppies are pretty needy, but it doesn't have to be a puppy."

"You misunderstand. He already has a puppy."

Emma pouted and proved Regina's point for her. "I'm not a puppy."

A councilwoman cleared her throat to get their attention. "Mayor Mills, if you're done, we'd like to move on to your proposals."

Regina sat up straight. "Of course."

Emma lowered the binder. Their hands were sitting on the table. Emma's left wrapped in Regina's right. They didn't notice until the entire council openly stared.

They tried to pull apart, but their palms kept snapping back together before they could get their fingers free of each other.

"Stop it!" Regina whispered sharply.

"You stop it!" Emma pulled their hands under the table to try to physically pry them apart with her other.

"Well?" The councilwoman grew impatient.

Regina slid the binder back over to herself as Emma got to work. She was a picture of poise and purpose going over her plans and answering any questions, while Emma went to war on their hands on the verge of breaking a sweat.

Emma took the hands into her lap and force the fingers of her free hand in-between their palms. She struggled to make any headway on separating their hands. Every time she thought she made progress it reverted if she looked away for even a second. Her need to blink was becoming the enemy.

She stole the pen Regina was using to point things out in her binder and thrust it between their palms.

"Ow." Regina hissed.

"Sorry."

Regina stole their hands away from Emma to keep her from doing any more damage and rested them in her own lap. They stayed like that until the meeting finished and the council people left them at the table with judging glares and knowing smirks.

When they were alone at last Regina stood from the table and dragged Emma with her. "What did you do?" She accused.

"I didn't do anything!"

Regina lifted their hands to inspect it and rescued her pen. After tossing it back to the table she focused her free hand over the trapped ones. Their entangled hands glowed a dancing pink and yellow.

Her open hand snapped shut and the glowing dissipated. She stared after it with a furrowed brow. "That doesn't make any sense."

"What is it?" Emma lifted their hands higher and tilted her head as if she would find the answer underneath.

Regina shook her head and brought their hands back down. "Nothing." She put her free hand over them again. "This is going to hurt." A red light illuminated from Regina palm and a twin light appeared in their attached ones.

"Wh- OW!" Their hands came apart, but left their palms red, raw, and burning. Emma held the wrist of her injured hand and shook it out, trying and failing to shake away the pain. "What the hell was that?"

Regina thought for a moment looking for the right way to put it. "Magic Blowtorch."

"It huuurts."

"Indeed." She lifted her hands to assess the damage and sighed.

Emma frowned as she noticed both Regina's palms had suffered while Emma only had to deal with the one. Probably one of those prices of magic everyone was always going on about. "You okay?"

"Could you pick up Henry today? I don't think I'll be able to drive."

"Yeah, sure." Emma couldn't read the storm of emotions playing out on Regina's face.

The mayor's brow straightened and she looked up from her hands as she remembered Emma was still there. "Remember he's staying an extra hour for volunteer work."

"Okay." She made her way to the door, but looked back to Regina who was settling at her desk. "Are you okay?"

"Have a good day, Miss Swan."

Emma frowned at the polite dismissal, but opened the door to let herself out. "You too."

* * *

Emma avoided as many family activities as she could while her hand healed. She felt bad about it. Avoiding Regina meant seeing less of Henry, but if it meant no more magic blowtorches then it was a price she was willing to pay, at least for a little while.

She couldn't figure out, for the life of her, why her hands seemed so inclined to attach themselves to Regina. All she knew for sure is that it had to be some sort of magic. If Regina had any ideas she wasn't sharing, if anything she was playing the avoidance game too.

But the game was up.

The opening of the new skate park and Emma's promises to be there made it impossible to put it off any longer.

She slipped on her gloves as an added layer of protection. There would be no handholding today, and definitely no sticky fingers.

She found Regina looking anxious watching the kids ride around on two to four wheels. Their kid was in the center of it all, heavily strapped in protective gear as Ruby showed him how to stand on a skateboard.

She chuckled to herself noticing Regina's gloves. It was a warm enough day that gloves weren't really necessary. It seemed Emma wasn't the only one who came prepared.

Henry looked up in time to see her take a place beside Regina and waved enthusiastically with a toothy grin.

Emma returned the gesture and side-eyed Regina with a mischievous smile. "Do you think he has enough padding? I can still see his face."

Regina only spared her a glance. "If you find the safety of our son amusing you might want to rethink your parenting capabilities."

"I'm just saying. If he falls down he's not going to be able to get up."

"Quite the contrary. He will be able to get up, because he's not going to crack his head open on the concrete."

"You just like to suck the fun out of everything, don't you?

"Only when you're involved, dear." A small smile sounded her voice.

Emma risked a glace just to make sure she wasn't hearing things. Regina's lips were tugged up in a self-satisfied smirk.

Sometimes Emma got the crazy idea that Regina enjoyed their odd rapport as much as she did, that it was more than just for Henry's sake, and the warm glint she sometimes caught in Regina's eyes could possibly be for her.

Emma smiled at the thought. There was something special about that glint. It didn't matter where they were or what they were doing. After a lifetime of running, seeing it always made her feel like she was coming home.

There it was again. Warmth filled her, starting at her fingertips, safe, secure, and forever.

She watched her gloved fingers dance with Regina's at their sides, weaving in and out between each other.

She brought her head up and caught Regina staring at her, a mixture of dread and wonderment clashing in chocolate eyes. For a moment Emma could swear that she felt it too.

Regina slowly pulled her hand away and kept them contained by crossing them at her chest.

Emma sighed and mimicked her posture. "Are we ever going to talk about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Regina, we keep holding hands, and got stuck together last time."

"So keep your grabby hands to yourself."

Emma rolled her eyes. "That's not it and you know it." Regina's silence caused Emma to look at her. "You do know it! What the hell is going on?"

She worried her lip before reluctantly giving an answer. "Very powerful magic."

"Well yeah, I got that much from the glow-y hands."

Regina sighed. "It must be some kind of curse, possibly someone's idea of a joke."

"Why would someone curse us?"

"Revenge, cruelty, hatred; take your pick."

Emma sighed dramatically. "And here I thought it was just the universe trying to tell us we belong together." She bumped Regina's shoulder with her own. "Wouldn't that be something?" She moved away from Regina, but Regina moved with her. They pulled, but didn't get very far. Their upper-arms were stuck together like strong magnets.

"What did you do!?"

"I'm sorry!"

They made a scene trying to pull away from each other. Emma used a railing as an anchor and Regina called upon every muscle to make an effort at breaking the connection. Regina lost her footing and tumbled back into Emma.

"Moms?" Henry stepped through the spectators, followed by a curious yet concerned Ruby.

"Miss Lucas!" Regina sounded almost relieved. She reached an arm out to her. "Pull."

"Okay." Ruby shrugged. She wrapped an arm around Regina's small waist. Emma took a better grip of the rail, and could barely hang on as Ruby used her werewolf strength to tug them free.

They both sighed in relief when they finally came apart. They moved further away from each other to be safe, but could only get so far. Their hands had found each other.

Regina's nostrils flared. She pulled the glove off of her free hand with her teeth and let it fall to the ground. Her hand glowed red in preparation.

"No!" Emma stopped her. "No magic blowtorch! My hand just stopped hurting and I really like these gloves."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"You said it's a curse or something right? So let's break it. That's kind of my thing."

Regina rolled her eyes at Emma's bragging, but agreed non-the-less. "Henry, stay with Miss Lucas." They disappeared into a puff of smoke before there could be any objections.

…

Emma was woozy on her feet when they popped up again in front of Gold's shop. She wasn't granted time to recuperate. Regina marched in like a woman on a mission, dragging Emma behind her.

She marched right up to the counter Gold was standing behind and slapped their interlocked hands on top. "Fix it." She demanded.

"I'm sorry dearie; you'll have to enlighten me."

"Don't play games, Imp. You did this, or you know who do this." She shook their hands for emphasis.

He brought his hands up to the counter and hovered them over theirs. His fingers wiggled as he went over things in his head. He changed his mind and turned his back on the women to dig through a cabinet. He returned with a stethoscope hanging from his ears.

He breathed air on the metal end and wiped it on his sleeve. "It's a bit cold. Let's see now." He placed it on Regina's hand and just listened. He flipped their hands and did the same to Emma's. His eyebrow quirk with whatever he found. He finished with the stethoscope, wrapping it around his neck.

"Well?" Regina lost all her patience.

"I believe you already know the answer."

Regina's entire body tightened.

"What?" Emma asked. She turned to Gold when Regina ignored her. "She just said it's powerful magic."

"Very powerful." Gold added. "A normal person might even call it a blessing rather than a curse."

Her eyes widened as pieces started to fit together in her head. "It's not," She gulped. "True Love?"

"Not quite." Gold grinned. "Not yet." He added softly, before going on. "You're soul mates."

"That's a thing?"

"Normally, when soul mates find each other their hosts do them the courtesy of building a proper relationship. The more time you spend together the stronger the need to connect grows. You two continue to ignore your feelings for each other, so your souls have resorted to desperate measures to be together."

Emma turned beet red and was relieved to find Regina wasn't much better off even with her darker complexion.

"How do we make it go away?" Regina finally spoke again.

Emma frowned.

"Date."

"Excuse me?"

"Either you'll fall in love or your souls will realize it's not meant to be and let go of each other. Your souls don't know for sure yet, but will keep trying until they find out." He brought a finger up thinking of something. "Or, I suppose you could always put great distance between you for the rest of your lives."

Emma turned her full attention to Regina and waited until she looked at her. "I'm not leaving town, so you'll just have to date me."

Regina looked deep into her eyes with a bit of fear, but eventually gave an answer. "Okay."

"Seriously?" Emma lit up.

Regina nodded with a smile of her own.

"Awesome!" In her excitement she took Regina in a hug. "Oh, hey." She noticed her hand was hers again.

"You're welcome." Gold grumbled. "Now get out, we're closed."

Emma opted out of poofing back to the skate park. They walked side by side in silence unsure of what to say.

With their gloves in their pockets, Emma tentatively slipped her hand into Regina's. Her heart sank as she felt Regina pull away.

"Just checking." Regina put her hand back in Emma's and they walked all the way back, hand in hand.


End file.
